February 26, 2009

I just have to tell you the interesting problem on of my CFF teachers posted to me. It dealt with creating layers in Activstudio. D and I spent an hour working with the problem. We got some of it working which led us into other possibilities. We could not solve all of the problems, but it went well. I also did an Indesign with K's class. That went well because the students were able to work independently and learn some of the intricacies of the program. It is nice that the onus is on the student and the teacher becomes the facilitator. They will also branch off into photoshop from here. The Janus project is coming together well, and we have a final meeting set up for next week where the students will present their video. The two girls did a great job, and I know they are looking forward to presenting in front of NASA. I have seen snippets of it, and I am anxious to view it. I am proud of the them--hey, hey (take me back to my old cheerleading days, yeah {yes, that is sarcasm at its finest with a little mixture of hyperbole}). The teachers got their lappys today, and I know I will have to do some tweaking on them, but I will await their calls. A very productive day!!! Tomorrow, I will talk about eportfolios to the seniors. This will be quite interesting, and I am looking forward to dealing with this topic. Well, I know you are awaiting the outcome...whoa, stop the presses. I just found out that one of our students did an HBO pilot when he was in 4th grade. It is wild. To view: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=419kaKo0HUo I must warn you all that is is HBO so some of it is quite questionable, let's say. That may pique some curiosity in some of my loyal readers er..... I mean reader. Hey, be back tomorrow to end the month and the week.............flick

February 25, 2009

I have been integrating Photostory3 in quite a lot of classes, and the students love doing projects with it because of how easy it interfaces with the user. They are able to be quite creative, interject their own voices, and get off of the powerpoint kick. People are tired of powerpoint, and this program gives a viable alternative. We will become a photostory district soon. I had another teacher approach me about using it, and we have set up a time next week to talk about it. The CFF lappys are done, and I will distribute them tomorrow to the teachers. I am preparing and Indesign module for K tomorrow. I am watching teachers transform their ideas and engaging students more in various functions. I love it. We have back to school tonight, and that will give me a chance to work on tomorrow, etc. I know some teachers are showcasing student work. Well, I am off to the land of sleep...see ya tomorrow...............flick

February 24, 2009

Plan B is the order of the day because my plans for the computer fair were thwarted due to lack of participation by the two participants. Oh well, it gave me a chance to catch up on a lot of things. The IT department a la KP are finishing the CFF laptops for distribution. This will give the teachers an opportunity to integrate themselves into the use of the Promethean boards. I also worked with the embedded learning and did a class after school for some teachers who needed some help. The rest of the week is planned, and out of the 12 periods left in the week. I will be in the classroom 10 of those periods doing everything from Indesign to Photostory. Busy!!!!!! I also have back to school night tomorrow night. I think there is enough on the plate for this week, Be back tomorrow...........flick

February 23, 2009

Spent this day at the IU10 for training using photography. The district gets a free digital camera which will go to the elementary schools for their use. I believe we have enough at the secondary level, and they need to use the technology, too. The training was quite good in that it reinforced a lot of what I have amassed through the millenia of experience--in other words; I am old. The trainer is attached to Tool Factory, and he was quite good. He told the truth about the camera and the software. It was refreshing from that aspect. I despise people who come in to a training and make it sound like an infomercial. Of course, I had to deal with the school aspect and found out that tomorrow's computer fair may be off because of student initiative. It does not surprise me, but I am not happy with it. I knew I would have to deal with Janus, and I am prepared for that every day. That is okay because I have bought into this program and the people working on it. For all of my Portuguese readers.....Tchau........flick

February 20, 2009

The end of the busy week. It has been wrought with all sorts of interesting problems, but it has been a learning time, also. It looks like most of the virus problems are solved; notice I said most of them. I know how those boogers work, and it will be awhile before they are eradicated. I have been talking with teachers, and my next week is filled with Photostory and InDesign inclusions. The plans right now involve a small conference Monday at the IU and Tuesday a computer fair. I am also working with Janus people, etc. I also had to pitch in and work some tech problems to get everything as close to normal as possible. Well, I am off for a fun-filled weekend. See ya next week..............flick

February 19, 2009

I just received a phone call that made me smile so much. I have a new teacher who called and wants me to sit in on his class to watch his attempt with the interactive whiteboard. This is what I call daring, innovative, and out of the comfort zone. I know this teacher well, and this was a big move for him. This is what I am talking about--challenging the self and the students. I am headed there now; I will report. I am back, and it did work well. I love to see the utilization and the confidence increase. Great job C. Things went well, and we will be able to do some other things. He already asked me about it. I also love the part that he did not feel threatened by my being there. I am not there to judge but to help. I also worked some resource library magic today and did some other things. I have been in several rooms today just talking and getting my schedule in order for next week. It does look busy. Great... later.......flick

February 18, 2009

Back from the IU...internet up, email up, and now web work has piled up, and I need to get to work on that. As a matter of fact, this will give all of my anxious readers who thought I fell off the face of the earth a chance to get back to their daily reading routine and find out about the life of CFFFlick. Okay, so it is only a few million readers out of the billions out there, but I will cater to the loyalists. I worked hard to get all of the embedded learning material up-to-date as well the wiki and other things online. I also had a ton of email to peruse as well as other matters because we are still fighting the virus here at PV. I really think it is important to learn about virus creation so one can fight it better. I do wish those people who created these things would put their talents to work in a more positive light. We will get there. I have been out and about into the classrooms and am watching people do great things. I love it...........flick

February 17, 2009

Over the mountain and through the woods, off to the IU10 I go; yep, quite stupid, but you have to know where our IU is, and you might understand. I took teacher K with me, and she did a great job showing some of the things she did. I loved the questions she generated from the group of CFF coaches. There was another teacher there from another school (she also was a PV grad like K), and she did a great job on some of the things she was doing in biology. We had an oovoo discussion with Beth, who is from PDE, and talked about other ideas dealing with CFF. I am going to digress here and write bout two concepts from my soapbox. First, I am going to talk about K. I had no hand in her hiring, but I must admit that I am so proud to have her in my former position. She has great vision and is not afraid of dealing outside the box. I like her pizazz, and her ability to ascertain situations. What a great addition to PV and the teaching profession. She will create a great footprint on her students. Secondly, I am going to promote an IU10 regional conference for CFF. Do not get me wrong. I attended PETE&C and loved it, but I feel a regional conference hosted by one of the school districts would allow more people to attend and would allow more interaction among the participants and presenters. The important part to all of this I feel would be more collaboration among the schools and the teachers. We need to break down the barriers that exist and promote more with the internet 2.0 concept....For all of my Italian contacts.....Addio.....flick

February 16, 2009

Another week and still no internet, etc. I know that it will be fixed, and I am still catching up on other things. Again, it is still neat to observe my colleagues and their innovations. I love it. I have nothing new to report and nothing witty to say (I know that there is a first for everything). I have a CFF meeting at the IU tomorrow, and I am taking one of my teachers to it so I can share with the group some of the things she is doing. I love my teachers taking chances and going outside their comfort zones. I have done that for years, and no, not always successful. I sometimes have learned more from my failures than from my successes. Well, off I go..........flick

February 13, 2009

Like I said I am getting caught up. We had in-service today, and I did a presentation on Promethean boards. The main purpose of the in-service dealt with the looking at the data from the preliminary testing. The data looked good and that is a credit to a lot of people. My presentation could have been better. We lumped people who had experience with people who had none. This is not a good move, and in future in-servicings, I will separate the groups so I do not have redundancy for those who have more experience. I am also going to have trainings per department to help alleviate all of this. I know some people learned some things; therefore, it was successful. Hagoone' for all of my Navajo readers...........flick

February 12, 2009

As you can tell by the post date of this, I am far behind blogging. There is a good reason for this--our network has been down due to viruses, etc. The down time has given me a chance to catch up on paperwork, etc. I am glad that this has happened (I try to find a positive ion in all of those negatives). This has given me the chance to view how dependent we have become upon our technology. I postulated that the older teachers would be more resilient in crafting alternatives for their classes than the newer teachers. After spot checking various teachers, I had to revise that immensely. All teachers were able to cope well without it by simply going to Plan B. I was proud of all. I guess the surprise came at the district level. The district has become so reliant in its gathering of information electronically that it had a hard time adjusting to the outage. We as a society need flexibility to adjust to the these problems. Technology is a tool, and it is important to have the right tool to do the job. We still need to have the foresight to adjust and create other tools when forced to do so....later.....flick

February 5-11

As you can tell from the title of this entry, I have combined many days into one blog. Oh, there is a reason for those uniniated to my blog, and I am going to reveal this to you right now--I was conferencing. I had two conferences--both in Hershey. The first was one for football, and the second dealt with technology and CFF. It was a long time away, but I did have a good learning experience with both. This was my first time at the PETE&C conferences, and it was good; the problem is that it is huge. Some of the sessions I could not attend because the rooms were packed, and I had to rely on Plan B and Plan C--I refused to go to Plan D. I felt it I learned a few new ideas and sites; there are some things I need to add to my wiki. I am happy walking away from a conference when this happens. There were some probs back at the home school with the server, and to this day, they are not solved. All I will say is that could have been.......I will leave it at that. The Janus project is moving ahead well. I am preparing for in-servicing, and did some interviews for the elementary tech position. I just wanted to post all of this for ya, and I know that some of you have been waiting with anticipation for this update. There will be more. Be back later.....flick

February 4, 2009

The phone is ringing incessantly today and the emails are flowing in and out of the mailbox. The topics range from board problems to needing ink. I also met with the principal today, and we had a long discussion concerning CFF and technology integration--a very productive meeting and some great direction. The embedded learning talks about reflection, and I have done a lot of that. I am glad to really be blazing a new Cumberland Trail. There is always something new with the position--some revelation or concept. I love that freshness and anxious to find ways to incorporate. I have to prepare more for the Photostory presentation tomorrow. There are some modifications due to subject matter, and I am going to have visitors from the powers. I looked at my schedule for February, and it is filled trainings and conferences. Wow, the GPS unit will be working full-time. Friday thru Wednesday, I will be attending back to back conferences (same town, thank goodness). My philosophy concerning conferences, etc is "I will keep an open mind, and if I learn one thing, it was worth it." It has sustained me so far. Hey, to work I go...........flick

February 3, 2009

Go Embedded Learning, Go, Go--Ahh, it takes me back to my old cheerleading days....yeah, right. It is difficult working with getting all of this together, but I finally had to release the class because some are chomping at the bit while others have not even registered. I have seen them all and will just now await the fallout. My presentation on Photostory last week prompted some interest from others, and I have another presentation on Thursday. I like it. I met with the SS chairman and outlined some ideas. It was good. I also met with 7 other teachers today to go over concepts and ideas. I do believe a lot of them are unsure of my role. I will model that and the word will go out. I have to curb my impatience on some things, and I know I can do that. It is a process that takes time. I am thinking of trying to buy some time because I do run out of it. Anyone have some for sale? Tomorrow.............flick

February 2, 2009

The groundhog saw his shadow; that %$&$##&*(&&^%^ furry rodent. I got that out of my system. Extremely busy day yesterday, but also memorial with respect to technology. One of the music persons came to me excited about using a wiki for the music area. We talked about it, and all of the light bulbs went off about some of the concepts I have been discussing. He is quite excited about it, and I am glad. I see some great use there. I met with several teachers today and also did a tremendous amount with embedded learning. We picked up some more interactive whiteboards so there were some installations. I retired....oops, that is for my blog in five years. I do not want to jump the gun yet. I am really impressed today with my teachers starting to think and branch out from the norm to try things. They are inundated with so many initiatives right now, and I refuse to pressure them for more. They are a motivated group and will develop ideas to infuse the technology. I can talk with them and aid them, and they are using me more and more for that. My strategy is working as I knew it would. No, I am not patting myself on the back; I worked the same strategy last year with a lot of success. I know it works. I do have to tweak it now and then depending upon the person. Be back tomorrow.................flick

January 30, 2009

Still working on the various duties I have to get done. Yesterday, I forgot to talk about working with two students on the Janus project. I have alluded to this before, and we did interviews last night at Penn State. Whoa, I cannot believe that January is almost over. The presentation went well; I will have to arrange a time to talk to the powers and get the official assessment. Even with the network glitches, I thought it went well. K does well in the classroom and is a good fit here and for me. I also talked with some teachers to help them with some technical things. The meetings were all good. I do love working with them. I began working on some things, and that is when I got sick and had to go home. I do not regret my surgery, but I do hate what happens to me sometimes. I know I have to live with it, but it is quite incapacitating; Friday was bad. I will just have to catch up next week. Have a great weekend.........flick

January 29, 2009

Yep, snow day yesterday. I was going to come in and live up to the CFF motto, but I did not invent one yet so I did not have to live up to it. I am preparing for the presentation for Friday's class, and I talked with another teacher who wants a similar presentation next week. I am going to be observed; I guess after over 30 years it does not bother me anymore. I also arranged Atomic Learning accounts for students in a fellow teacher's classroom. It will help teach the in's and out's of Indesign. I am also working on the Embedded Learning material. Sometimes this can be frustrating to get everyone on board. I will save that for another time. In the next few weeks, I will be oot (for all of my Canadian readers; love your country) in the next few weeks for many days attending conferences. There is a lot to do and little time to accomplish. Uh oh, I see the making of a motto. Next, there will be official pocket protector and uniform. I will have to get the designers ready for that one. As I recline on the Chesterfield awaiting my puck, I will bid you adieu.